The principles at work in a Canadian regional government.

• Author: Gable, Julie
• Position: THE PRINCIPLES: GENERALLY ACCEPTED RECORDKEEPING PRINCIPLES

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Recordkeeping may look the same in government as it does in business, but there are important differences in both how and why records are kept. (See Figure 1 on page 39.) To their credit, the Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles[R] (Principles) can provide as much practical value in the public sector as they do in business.

Just ask Clare Cameron, CIP, information management coordinator for the Regional Municipality of Niagara, which serves 12 communities in Ontario, Canada. The Niagara region nestles between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, with the Niagara River as its eastern boundary with the United States. It covers 1,852 kilometers and has a population of more than 427,000. One of its best-known features is Niagara Falls.

Regional municipalities in Canada are something like U.S. counties. They are formed in populated areas to realize cost efficiencies in providing centralized services to an entire area rather than having each town provide its own.

Impetus for Records Management

At its inception in 1969, the Niagara regional government was primarily a vehicle for capital improvements, such as roads and water treatment projects that required significant funding. The early impetus for records management came from the Financial Services Department as it focused on the need to keep track of capital, debt, and tax collection records associated with these public works projects.

The Region's services now include water, waste collection, public transit, police, emergency services, public health, and social services, and it creates an estimated 1.2 million paper and electronic records annually.

Steps Toward IM Services

Niagara Region's first steps toward a formal information management services (IMS) function began in 1991, driven in part by the passage of the Ontario Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. This legislation gives citizens access to municipal information and mandates the privacy of personal information that governments maintain about individuals.

In terms of the Principles, the law requires government organizations to demonstrate the Principles of Protection and Availability as integral aspects of compliance.

Records Retention, Storage

As part of its efforts to meet the law's requirements, Niagara initiated its first records retention bylaw and retention schedule based on the Ontario Municipal Records Management Standard (TOMRMS), a methodology for organizing municipal documents that was itself developed by the Association of Municipal Clerks, Managers and Treasurers of Ontario, a professional...